WP “MUST FIGHT FOR EVERY SINGLE VOTE”
A total of 13 WP candidates spoke at a nearly three-hour long rally at Anderson Serangoon Junior College on Thursday night. A few, including party chair Sylvia Lim, a candidate for Aljunied GRC, called on Singaporeans to base their vote on hope and not fear.
“So tonight, let’s make a promise – not just to each other, but to Singapore – that come Saturday, we will vote not out of fear but with conviction and hope for the future that we deserve, that years from now, we can proudly say that we stood up and worked for Singapore as we pass the baton to the next generation,” she said.
Mr Singh spoke last, structuring his speech around what he termed “reality checks” on five points made by the PAP during their campaign trail – the first of which was Mr Wong’s assertion that voting for the opposition weakens the government when it comes to international negotiations.
The WP chief noted that even if every WP candidate in this elections was voted into parliament, the PAP would still have 71 out of 97 seats, or about 73 per cent.
Mr Singh said: “Does the PAP really believe that foreign leaders of democratic countries who meet Prime Minister Lawrence Wong will think: ‘Oh, the Singapore Prime Minister only won 73 per cent of the seats, so lousy! He must come from a lousy school!’?
“Let me tell you, foreign leaders of democracies would give their right arm and right leg for 73 per cent of the seats in parliament.”
Mr Singh then addressed Mr Wong’s comments that having more opposition MPs in parliament would make it difficult for the PAP government to manage the nation.
Mr Singh said the PAP “will win 65 or more seats easily” in this election. He then said that no PAP candidates, over the course of the rallies, had wanted to talk “substantively” about key national issues like housing lease decay and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike in the midst of a “global inflation storm”.
Mr Singh also took aim at Mr Wong’s remarks on how the opposition was here to stay.
“Make no mistake, the PAP never gives up,” said Mr Singh, adding that “there are never any safe seats for the opposition”.
“Please do not assume that Aljunied, Hougang and Sengkang are in any way safe for the Workers’ Party … Even Aljunied was nearly lost in 2015,” he said. That year, the WP team held on to the GRC with 50.96 per cent of the vote against a PAP team which garnered 49.04 per cent.
“We must fight for every single vote. Every single vote is precious for the Workers’ Party,” he said.
The final point Mr Singh sought to rebut was Mr Wong’s call for voters to not give the opposition a free pass and to apply the same standard when assessing their candidates.
Mr Singh said that the Group Representation Constituency system has “protected dozens of new PAP MPs” since it was created in 1988.
“For this election, a few PAP candidates never worked the ground until recently. Voters do not know them, but voters are expected to vote for them just because they are in a GRC with an anchor minister,” said the WP secretary-general.
“That is what I call a free pass.”
